


Puppy love

by Tisaniere



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Cash Seguin - Freeform, Dogs, Fluff, Gerry seguin, M/M, Marshall Seguin - Freeform, dog attack (kind of), like excessive levels of fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-26
Updated: 2018-04-26
Packaged: 2019-04-28 05:45:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14442648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tisaniere/pseuds/Tisaniere
Summary: Jamie starts to worry Marshall and Cash don't like him, and that Tyler's new puppy will feel the same. They all find a way to show him otherwise.For the Bennguin fan fest.





	Puppy love

**Author's Note:**

> For the Bennguin fan fest, prompt: Jamie and Gerry - Jamie feels like Gerry won’t like him when Tyler first shows him the new puppy but is pleasantly surprised when the bubbly puppy loves Jamie
> 
> Warnings: an aggressive dog attacks Seguin's dogs and Jamie, but no injuries are sustained and it lasts not much more than a paragraph.

Jamie had never been aware how much work went into buying a new puppy. It wasn’t that he thought it was like buying something off Amazon - search, add to basket, check out, select Prime, delivery will be tomorrow before 3pm. But he didn’t think it would be _this_ time consuming.

“This litter is very yellow though, don’t you think? Look at the Dad. He’s way more yellow than white. I kind of fancied one on the whiter side.”

Jamie peered at the picture of a gaggle of nine fluffy puppies spilling out of a box with painted pink flowers on the side. It was undoubtedly adorable, but he wasn’t sure that there was a lot of difference between this litter and the one before. And the one before that, and the sixteen other labrador litters that Tyler had clicked through and shown Jamie that afternoon. Jamie’s eyes wandered from the screen to the strong cord of muscle in the back of Tyler’s neck. He imagined trailing it with his tongue, from the bottom where the skin had been burnished tan to pink by his off-season vacations up to the soft fuzz of his sun-bleached hair. Tyler said something else and another photo appeared, and his voice sounded like a question so Jamie muttered an agreeable, “Hm, yeah, yeah.”

“What?”

His view of Tyler’s neck disappeared as Tyler turned around to look at him. Jamie blinked slowly back.

“Huh?”

“I asked which one do you think looks more yellow, this one or this one, and you said ‘yeah yeah’.”

Jamie could only blink again, for fear anything else would incriminate himself even further.

“Are you even listening, Jamie?”

“I am, I am, I promise. I just…they all kind of look the same to me.”

Tyler let out a little grumble and turned back to the screen. He stabbed at the laptop’s track pad until two tabs were side by side, a picture of a bunch of labradors on each.

“Look at those two litters and tell me they look identical.”

“They look identical,” Jamie said, without missing a beat. Tyler growled. It was one of those moments where Jamie realised his boyfriend was scarily similar to the two dogs he already owned. He turned his back on Jamie and hunched over the screen, signalling that he was now banned from puppy picking duties until further notice. Jamie sighed and tried not to roll his eyes in case Tyler could see his reflection on the screen, and went to find another beer.

It wasn’t that Jamie didn’t like dogs - he did, he loved them - it was just he wasn’t sure about owning one himself. The thing was he was never sure that dogs actually liked him back. Even his childhood dogs had always been much more keen on his sister or brother over him. 

He placed a second beer next to Tyler’s laptop and, even though he’d been technically banned from this search process, said, “Can’t you just get him from wherever you got Marshall and Cash?”

Tyler didn’t even deign to look up from his screen, “They were two different breeders.”

“Well, can’t you ask them?”

“I want a yellow lab. They only have black or brown, otherwise I wouldn’t have got Marshall from one and Cash from the other, would I?”

Jamie didn’t pretend to remember where they were both from, or that they had been different places.

“Ok. Well maybe they know someone who does?”

Tyler went back to bashing the keyboard a little too aggressively, but didn’t say anything else. Jamie guessed he was still banned from the search but his idea hadn’t been too stupid, so he left him to it. But not before he pressed his cold beer against the back of Tyler’s neck just to annoy him and danced out of the way of the surprised slap Tyler aimed at him.

He jumped barefoot onto the grass from the patio and headed towards the pool area. Marshall and Cash were gnawing at their respective toys on the turf, enjoying the sun. 

“You guys like me, don’t you? You think I’m a good dog Dad?”

Marshall didn’t look up from where he was grappling with his plastic ball, but Cash rolled on his back and presented his tummy for a stroke. Jamie took that as a positive and spent some time scrubbing at the short black hair of his belly. He pretended not to notice Tyler so obviously watching him from the deck.

 

* * *

 

Jamie came around the side of the couch and looked down at the spot he had vacated not thirty seconds before.

“Cash,” he said balefully, his hands full of a bowl of salad. Cash pretended not to hear him and laid his head possessively on Tyler’s chest.

“Tyler,” Jamie tried.

“You snooze you lose,” Tyler said, not taking his eyes off the screen. He’d not wanted seconds of their dinner so his bowl was balancing precariously on the back of the couch. Originally he’d had Marshall on one side and Jamie on the other, but Jamie was apparently too stupid to know the rules of the Seguin household and he’d lost his place to a great big black lab. Tyler had now taken up a sprawling position across the cushion, with one arm on Cash and one curling over Marshall, and looked all the paler and skinnier for his two new cuddling buddies.

Jamie sat down on the other side of Cash. It wasn’t exactly a hardship, the couch was big enough for the entire Dallas Stars team to sit with their legs splayed, but that wasn’t the point. Tyler obviously heard the little sigh he let out because he lifted a hand off Cash and stroked down the side of Jamie’s arm.

“Don’t sulk.”

“I’m not sulking.”

“You only had to move like six inches Jamie.”

“I know.”

“The boys need their couch time with Daddy.”

Jamie rolled his eyes, “Believe me, I know.”

Cash stretched out his back legs and nearly sent Jamie’s meal flying out of his hands. He stood up and moved to the other end of the couch and started to spoon salad into his mouth a little harder than necessary, Tyler’s laugh chasing him across the cushions.

* * *

 

“I don’t think the dogs like me.”

Tyler made a noise into the mattress.

“What do you think?”

Tyler hauled his head up and squinted at him. His lip curled up and his mouth dropped open in a perfect picture of cluelessness, “Huh?”

“Cash and Marshall. I think they hate me.”

Tyler let his head drop back face-down onto the mattress and said, his voice pitched a little high, “Geez Jamie, now is not the time.”

Jamie chewed his lip thoughtfully, “Was just thinking about it.”

Tyler made another grunting noise but didn’t contribute anything else.

“Tyler?”

“Not. Now,” Tyler said, muffled. He stretched out a hand and flapped it over the covers, “Cuddle me.”

Jamie did as he was told, scooping Tyler up into his arms so that his face was now pressed against his collarbone. Tyler said something that sounded like ‘that’s better’ and went still in Jamie’s hold.

Jamie wasn’t really one to leave things alone, though, not when he had become fixated. The dog’s opinions of him had become a little scab he couldn’t stop picking at. So he let Tyler doze for a while then chucked his chin with his fingers, “Do you think Cash and Marshall like me?”

“Oh my god,” Tyler said into the skin of his chest, “You are being so stupid. Yes, they like you. There.”

“But really, though? ‘Cos they don’t like it when I don’t let them sleep in bed with us. And I don’t think they ever really want to play with me, like they do with you.”

“Marshall sleeps on you on the couch all the time.”

“I think that’s because I’m next to you, and that’s literally the only way he can be as close to you as he wants.”

“I don’t know what to tell you, Jamie,” Tyler sighed, scrubbing at his face with the hand not trapped against Jamie’s torso, “The dogs like you just fine. Can you stop obsessing now, please?”

“OK.”

“And learn better timing to bring that sort of thing up.”

“When’s a good time to ask my boyfriend’s dogs don’t like me?”

Tyler tilted his head back so Jamie could feel his lips against the underside of his chin, “I’m not sure, but it sure as hell isn’t right after we have sex.”

Jamie promised to make a note of it.

* * *

 

Tyler was beside himself with joy when he finally got the email from the breeder about his puppy. They’d been delayed by a few weeks due to various bits of paperwork so Tyler had fretted that he wouldn’t have much time to settle him into his summer place before moving back to Dallas. But his stuff was all ready, and Tyler knew the routine after doing this twice before, and he was sure this puppy would be outgoing and confident enough to get used to the change. This was all said to Jamie in rushed, excited garbles over the phone. They were in that weird part of the off season where they had enough to do in different parts of the country to keep them apart, but the move back to Dallas was just around the corner. It left Jamie feeling unsettled, which was why heenjoyed the FaceTime sessions with Tyler.

“You going to call me when he arrives?”

Tyler beamed impossibly brighter that, “Of course! He’s basically yours as well, you know that. Or he will be, when I get him down to Dallas.”

“What if he doesn’t like me though?” Jamie asked, a little red in the ears.

“What? Don’t tell me you’re still worried about this. How can Cash and Marshall not like you, they’ve known you for years. And this puppy will love you, I promise.”

Jamie ‘hmm’d thoughtfully.

“Stop looking so sad. He’ll love you. You know that right?”

Jamie relinquished with a smile, “Yeah, Ok. I can’t wait to see him, and you.”

That’s when the screen turned mostly black, Tyler shouted ‘oof’ and the phone camera skittered around before settling with a view of the ceiling.

“Tyler?”

Eventually he saw Tyler’s hand reach over and his face appeared, with Cash tucked right under his chin.

“Sorry, he just came and sat on me. I’d better go, it kind of hurts to hold the phone like this. I’ll call you when I have the puppy!”

Jamie managed to squeeze in a goodbye before the line dropped. He stared down at the phone for a while and thought through it all. Eventually he decided that, much like hockey, an offensive game plan was the best weapon. He pulled up Google and started shopping.

* * *

 

“Hey! You ready to meet the new little bro?”

Jamie couldn’t help but grin at Tyler’s overly eager excitement in his voice.

“Bring him in.”

Tyler peered around the corner from the hallway into Jamie’s kitchen, a little pale bundle in his arms.

“Look, Gerry! It’s Jamie!”

The little yellow labrador started to immediately kick in Tyler’s arms, pedalling furiously to get down to the ground. He reared his head back and made a little whining noise, ears flapping against his pudgy face. He had the sleepiest eyes that Jamie had ever seen on a dog, which looked totally at odds with the rabid excitement the was currently showing. He’d grown a lot in the month he’d been at Tyler’s, but he was still squishy and uncoordinated.

“He’s so excited to see you,” Tyler crooned, moving over with the struggling puppy in his arms, “Look at him. He recognises your voice from the phone.”

He slowly placed Gerry down on the floor and his paws were barely down before he was jumping at Jamie’s shins.

“Hey Gerry, look at you. You’re so small.”

Jamie crouched down and one of his huge hands almost covered Gerry whole. He rubbed at his ears and his chin, spoke gibberish into his face and kissed his nose as best he could without getting his face licked off.

“See, I told you he’d like you,” Tyler said, toeing Jamie’s side for emphasis.

Jamie looked up at him, “I don’t think this dog would dislike anyone.”

“Well, you’re right, even the vet who gave him his shots is now his best friend. But still, he really likes you. Look at him.”

It was true, Gerry seemed totally in love with whatever smell Jamie was giving off. Once he’d stopped licking Jamie’s fingers he pottered about his kitchen, sniffing whatever he could with the earnest curiosity only a puppy could manage.

“He manage the journey down ok?”

“Yeah, he was a trooper. They were all good. We got in about 2am so I didn’t think you wanted us stopping by straight away.”

Marshall and Cash ambled in from where they’d been drinking gallons of water in the wet room at the back of the house. Jamie rushed away from a rather bemused Tyler to greet them.

“Hey Cash, hey Marshall. How are you guys doing?”

He scrubbed his hands down their sides like he knew they liked and scratched at their heads. The pair let themselves be loved, and Jamie was heartened at their expressions of tired acceptance.

“I got you something boys.”

Jamie dragged over a wicker basket that the pet store had delivered his huge order of toys in. Gerry came alongexcitedly to see what was going on. Marshall gave him a growl when he tried to get between him and whatever gift he thought was coming his way, and Tyler gave him a sharp telling off.

“Be nice to your brother.”

“Yeah don’t worry, I got stuff for all of you.”

Jamie opened up the basket to reveal what had to be around 20 different dog toys: three versions of each, so that no-one was left out.

“Oh my god, Jamie! What is all that stuff?”

“It’s toys. For Marshall and Cash, and now for Gerry too.”

“But…but why?” Tyler asked, audibly swallowing down his laughter. Jamie dug out a few tug ropes and threw them towards the living room, and Marshall lolloped after them. Cash stuck his head in the basket and pulled out an ugly, plastic chicken that squeaked hideously. Nasty plastic toys that made awful noises were his favourite thing, so he ran off happily with it in his mouth. Gerry came back from trying to decide which of his big brothers to follow and Jamie handed him a large white toy in the shape of a toothbrush. He managed to get it clamped between his tiny teeth and dutifully trotted to where his brothers were now draped with their new possessions on the living room rug.

“Jamie you didn’t have to do that.”

“I just wanted to give them something. I missed them this summer.”

“You mean you’re bribing them into liking you?” Tyler asked, his lips curled into a barely suppressed grin.

“No. No. Well, maybe.”

“They _like_ you, Jamie. Don’t be stupid.”

Tyler slid forward and wrapped his arms around Jamie’s waist. He kissed him deeply, the smell of the shower he had this morning and his deodorant and the dogs all shrouding Jamie and making his toes curl. God it was good to have Tyler back.

“Did you get me a present?” Tyler asked, when they finally broke apart.

“Er…” Jamie felt himself going red from his collarbone to his ears, “Um…I mean, I can, but…”

“You are ridiculous. And I want a present by the end of the week.”

They spent the day idling in the late summer sun of Dallas, getting their schedules sorted and playing with the dogs and their huge basket of new toys. Gerry had a few accidents around the house, but he was too cute for Jamie to be even remotely cross at him.

Tyler got tied into a complicated phone call with his agent in the evening that made him roll his eyes and loll his head and make pleading faces in Jamie’s direction. Whilst Jamie couldn’t help him with the call itself, he delivered beer and nachos to him and then, just as Tyler was being dragged into something else he didn’t want to talk about, Jamie grabbed the dog’s leashes and jangled them in Tyler’s direction. Tyler gave him a thumbs up and then placed his hand back down on Gerry, who was sleeping heavily on his lap.

Jamie leashed up the two excitable dogs and they headed out for the walk around the neighbourhood. It was their usual route whenever Tyler stayed over and the dogs knew exactly where to go. He let them pull him along and asked their panting backs, “You guys like me more because of the presents now, right? All those toys? You can’t _not_ love me.”

Cash looked over his shoulder at him but his eyes gave nothing away. Sometimes these labs were inscrutable. But Jamie hoped the bribing had worked. And at least Gerry loved him. That was something.

They were coming up to the large property on the end of the block across from the park. At this point the dogs were straining like huskies pulling a sled - Tyler hadn’t really enforced leash training and so they weren’t easy to hold once excitable. They knew that this part of the walk meant that the park was nearby, that they could finally get off the leash and start to run.

The property had always made Jamie slightly nervous to walk the dogs by. There was a huge Rottweiler-type dog that lived on the grounds and it enjoyed barking and gnashing its teeth against the fence whenever anyone walked past. Now that was certainly a dog that didn't like him. It looked like there had been a house at the centre of the plot at one time, but it had become a pile that looked ready to fall over at a light wind. A caravan took up the length of one side and Jamie had never seen anyone enter or leave. He was pretty sure it was a drug den. All in all, he wished they could avoid it on their way to the park. 

The gate was standing open as they drew up to it. He heard the dog barking and thought briefly that surely the owner had the dog tied up if he knew the gate was standing open. He didn’t have time to hope that was true because he heard the pounding of the dog’s steps getting closer. Marshall and Cash heard it too, and backed up with their tails stiffened. Marshall started barking back before the dog even arrived, and Jamie had a moment to think ‘oh shit’ before the dog came flying through the gate. He yanked back on the dogs leashes but they were already on their guard. They danced backwards as the huge black dog snapped at them, circling them with his teeth on show. Marshall shook his head from side to side to try to get free from his leash and Cash began to snarl in a way Jamie had never seen him before. The dog had its hackles raised and its teeth on show, and Jamie had no idea what to do in this situation. None of them had actually bitten at each other yet but the larger dog was circling Marshall and Cash, and the noises they were all making set Jamie’s skin crawling. He tried yelling at the dog, tried pulling the labradors away, but he may as well have been invisible to the three of them, and no-one was coming out of the house to help.

The dog finally got sick of Jamie’s interventions and turned around to snap his huge jaws at Jamie’s ankle. Jamie jumped back, nearly flying over Cash, and automatically aimed a kick in the dog’s direction. There was nowhere to go with Tyler’s dogs around his ankles and the aggressive guard dog circling them. And now he’d decided Jamie was the target. He jumped at him again and Jamie heard the distinct snap of his jaws too close to comfort to the hairs of his leg.Marshall let out a growl that made Jamie drop his leash. The big brown lab lunged at the attacker with his teeth on show and Cash did the same, breaking his own leash completely. The dog tried to go for Jamie’s thigh but got tangled up in Marshall, who Jamie thought for a frightening moment actually managed to get his jaws around the other dog’s neck.

“Hey!” he heard from inside the gloom of the property beyond the gate. There was an ear piercing whistle and the dog spun around. He snarled at Cash with one frighteningly accurate bite, nearly catching his ear, and thenskittered back inside the gate. Jamie grabbed Marshall’s scruff and pulled him backwards.

“Come on boys, come on.”

He got them to the end of the road before he finally let out a breath and dropped to his knees beside them.

“Are you ok? Did he bite you? Boys I’m so sorry, are you alright?”

The dogs let him pet them and check them all over, panting and whining nervously.

“It’s ok, it’s ok. Thank you boys, thank you for protecting me,” Jamie said amongst a lot of other gibberish, most of it to comfort himself. He pressed a kiss to their heads and gave them a huge hug that they’d never let him do before. When he finally stopped shaking quite so much he pulled out his phone and rang Tyler, saying he needed to get here quickly for a pick up. 

Tyler’s arrival would have been almost comical if he weren’t for the adrenaline having totally vanished from Jamie body and left him cold and jittery all over. He was just relieved when Tyler’s SUV slammed to a stop next to them on the pavement. Gerry was in the front seat straining to see out of the window, his little ears raised up and his sleepy eyes wide against the glass. Tyler jumped out of the driver’s seat and left Gerry to bark and scrabble at the window.

“What happened?! Are you ok?”

Tyler clearly didn’t know who to check first so Jamie held up his hands and said, “Don’t worry, we’re all ok. No-one got bitten or anything.”

Tyler gave Jamie a kiss and squeezed his arms, “Are you sure? It didn’t get you at all?”

“No. I had my bodyguards.”

Tyler fell on his two dogs and showered them in hugs and kisses, “Did you protect Jamie? You’re so good boys, I didn’t know you had it in you.”

Eventually he was convinced they were both ok, and that Jamie definitely didn’t have need for a rabies shot, so they all packed up into the car and drove home. Gerry spent the short journey Jamie’s lap, licking his face with pure excitement and joy.

Tyler called in a takeaway from a vaguely healthy place in the neighbourhood and all dogs and humans collapsed together in a ball on the couch.

“I can’t believe the guy just let his dog get out like that! If you’ve got an aggressive dog, keep it locked away.”

Jamie ran a hand through Tyler’s hair and scratched at the soft spot behind his ear, “It’s OK, none of us were hurt. I just didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want it to hurt Marshall or Cash but I didn’t want to get in the middle of their fight.”

“They did a good job,” Tyler said, scrunching his fingers in Marshall’s fur where he was draped down his other side, “They were so good. I’ve never seen them fight really, I didn’t even know they could.”

“All dogs can, I guess they’ve just got to have a reason to.”

Tyler smiled at him a little goofily, “You were there reason. I told you they loved you.”

Jamie blushed a little, “Well yeah, I guess they do.”

“And you’re Gerry’s new favourite person,” Tyler said, practically cooing, and scratched the little puppy on Jamie’s lap.

“I know. This one loved me straight away, didn’t you? I don’t know why I worried. I bet you’d protect me from anything and oh shit I think he’s peeing on me! Tyler!”

 


End file.
